It is spring and spawning is in the air. Every early April for the past several years our Missouri River fisheries biologists along with a lot of great help from volunteers, have ventured onto the Missouri River to capture endangered pallid sturgeon. Specifically, the pallid sturgeon they are hoping to catch are female pallid sturgeon. When the right fish are captured, those female pallid sturgeon are hauled to fish hatcheries where eggs can be collected in order to produced more pallid sturgeon for recovery, re-stocking, efforts. The catches of Nebraska crews have produced, by far, the bulk of pallid sturgeon that have been stocked back into the Missouri River. Thank you to all involved, especially to all of our volunteers!
Those fish are caught on trot lines baited with nightcrawlers. To give you an idea of the work involved, take some time and watch this time-lapse video.
This year’s efforts will be winding down in the coming days. If you want, you can follow their progress here, NGPC Pallid Sturgeon Broodstock.